Last Options
by Tinted Red
Summary: Fox and Krystal are in love with each other, but their courage to admit it is weak. Things only get harder, as they are hired to go off to a distant galaxy to fight in the Cornerian Defense Force's bloodiest battle yet. The Sauhibian War...
1. What the Future May Hold

_**Chapter 1: What the Future May Hold**_

"Frag 'em!" shouted a Cornerian Defense Force field sergeant pointing toward a group of enemies in the area. After these words left his mouth there was a fragmentation grenade soaring overhead. When it had hit the floor there was a three second delay then afterwards fire burst in all directions sending troops of the opposing side flying with it.

The two sides, the Cornerian Defense Force and a group of terrorists and rebels, have gotten into a conflict a while back. Now, they're trying to settle the score, once and for all. They're in what seemed to be an abandoned apartment building. It had no color but grey on the ceiling, walls, and the floor. They were not cleaned in what seemed to be decades. Brown stains were also all along the wall and newly made cracks, holes made by bullets, and black marks stretched across the area from explosions from grenades. You could see a lot of old, dusty furniture up against the wall and as well as several paintings hung on the wall, all with faded, dust grey color.

The Cornerian soldiers were wearing black uniforms with a large helmet of the same color, which were different for each class or rank. The helmets also did not let you see their face. It was pitch black. Some helmets had clear glass, but the one wearing it had a mask under it to prevent exposure to the entire face. As for the noises and sounds, the only things that could be heard were shouting, shooting, running, bullets hitting the wall, bodies falling, glass breaking, and the tear of the thick materials that the soldiers were wearing.

Among the many soldiers was Krystal. Unlike the rest of the soldiers, her uniform had a special symbol with a FTS (Fire-Team Squad) on the upper arm with her name under it so other soldiers could identify her easily. As well as hers all the other Fire-Team Squad units' uniforms had these same symbols with their name under it.

Krystal was armed with an automatic rifle with a scope attached to the top of it. It also had a bipod attached to the nose and was silencer compatible. She had three different types of grenades: three fragmentation, two smoke grenades, and two flash grenades. She had a blaster as a secondary weapon, which is also compatible with silencer and a small scope. At last, she had night vision capabilities built in her helmet.

She was a higher rank than most of the surrounding soldiers around her. She was in fact the rank of sergeant first class. She had the required number of chevrons to be such a rank. She owned a five-man squad including her. All the other troops her rank and above had a squad like her's. The fight was going great for her squad, until they were all severely injured by a heavy machine gun that the enemy happened to surprise them with. They could not fight due to that ambush, and a medic came and took her call for a squad to provide cover, as they recover and get patched up.

While fighting for her life, she saw a figure waving at her yelling, "Krystal! Over here!" That voice sounded very familiar. She could just barely see him. He was behind cover. A large metal cargo crate was what seemed to be providing cover. There was smoke, fire, and troops running by making it hard to really see him. He was quite far, 30 yards at the most. As soon as she noticed him, he started to give a come here gesture with his arm. Krystal saw a symbol similar to the one on her arm. She could not tell what the name said under it. She finally recognized the voice as Fox! She was surprised she could even hear him because of the great amount of firing in the area. He seemed to be pinned down by a ton of gunfire. There where at least ten different enemy troops firing in his direction.

"Fox!" Krystal shouted to Fox over the gunfire. She began to wave back at him. She could not raise her arm too high or it will surely get the enemies attention and they'll know her position.

"Over here!" Fox yelled back still giving his gesture, "Hurry!" He stepped out of cover for a second and began to fire rounds into the air. He stepped back behind his cover right after. Then he was beginnig to reload, but then four bullets went flying by causing Fox's reflexes to trigger right away and he ducked and covered his head with his arms.

Krystal, seeing Fox was in some trouble, quickly broke cover and hurried over the to area where she saw Fox. The two where covering each other from their brutal enemies. Krystal was under a bit of pressure because of what was happening. It was difficult to concentrate on three different things at once: reaching Fox, avoid getting shot, and not running into a wall. As she was getting closer and closer, it seemed as if she had a chance of reaching him. But it all changed in less than three seconds.

Just as she was about to reach him, she saw a spherical object fly over her head. It made a clinking sound as it hit the wall next to her, and fell to her feet. She looked in terror at what she thought was a grenade. Now she had no choice but to go over it and risk being severely injured, or go back a bit, be safe, but get farther from Fox. She chose the second option because it was the easiest to do at the moment. She dove about five feet back and the grenade exploded leaving a black mark on the floor. Krystal landed on her chest with her arms out to avoid injury to the arms. Krystal was not injured, but her ears where ringing. She heard nothing, but that ringing noise.

She brought her arms up against the floor to help lift her body. She got back up on two feet and broke cover trying to reach Fox once more, this time much lower than before. Unfortunately, the grenade had weakened the floor below her and when her foot made contact, it began to crack. She could have made it, but she was walking too slow in her crouching position. Krystal felt gravity pull her down and began to panic. She tried to grab onto the ledge but missed. Then Fox grabbed her by the arm just before she fell to her death.

"Don't look down Krystal!" He shouted trying to pull Krystal up. He put his rifle down to allow him to put his other arm on her to pull her up quicker. Krystal did the same and dropped her rifle and grabbed onto Fox's strong arms. She did not hear the rifle drop until three seconds later. She tried not to look down like Fox said. She helped Fox in pulling her back up to his level. Krystal shut her eyes to indicate massive use of muscle.

Without warning, Krystal saw blood dripping from above landing on the glass of her helmet. Fox began shaking and loosing his grip of Krystal's hand. This scared Krystal a bit so she looked up and just before she could say, 'What's happening?' Krystal could see Fox's two sad eyes with a grieving look in them; she also saw tears. Finally, she saw drops of dark red blood coming from his chest from a large bullet wound landing on Krystal's shoulders. Krystal, too shocked to do anything, kept staring at her friend who began to loose balance. Before he fell, he put Krystal's hands back on the ledge to keep her from falling. He then began to fall to the side and slide down the very hole he was trying to save Krystal from. Krystal's eyes followed Fox as he hit the bottom floor and as he hit a blood red puddle began to form beside him. Then, everything went black...

Krystal awakens from the horrible dream, almost screamed with fear. Her hands were over her mouth in shock. But, she realized it wasn't real. She thought to herself, _Whew! It was only a dream._ She wiped her forehead and realized she was sweating more than usual. She didn't feel hot though, just stressed out. She could still hear that very shot ringing in her head over and over again. She'd been having that dream ever since the defeat of the Aparoids. It was only a month ago. She couldn't bear to see Fox like she had in her dream. She would always pray that it would never happen in real life.

She decided to get up, and try to forget about it. She pushed the covers off her body and hung her feet over her bedside. She walked toward her closet and pushed though the shirts, pants, skirts, et cetera. While browsing, a quick thought about Fox passed her mind, _What if that's what the future holds?_ But it seemed like ridiculous idea so she forgot about it. She decided to put on a tee shirt with some blue jeans. She wiped her head again to see if she was still sweating. It felt as if it had stopped, so she took a quick look at the clock and saw that it was 7:36 A.M. In about 20 minutes it'll be time for breakfast on the Great Fox II. She decided to go into the washroom to clean up before presenting herself to the rest of the team for breakfast.

She entered the washroom and turned on the sink. She figured using cold water would wake her up and keep her from starting to sweat again. She puth er hands in the stream of water and let if run between her fingers before she closed them tight together letting the water form into puddles. She began to clean her pretty, blue fur with the cool water.

When she was done, she grabbed a fresh towel and dried herself up. Then she walked out of her bathroom and slipped some socks and shoes on. The blue vixen proceeded into the hallway of the Great Fox II. But before she went to breakfast, she wanted to see if Fox was awake. She was usually the one to wake him up. She usually gets up earlier than him most of the time. Last time she went to breakfast without waking him up, and he slept till lunch. So she made up her mind, and toward Fox's room she went.

Now for Fox, he has a bag over his head. His head keeps throbbing with pain and he feels a bit dazed. He had no clue what was going on and felt pain in several parts of his body. He tried to move his arms and legs but there were chains going across his body preventing any movement whatsoever. Tere where voices that could be heard, which sounded quite close, in the same room. He could not tell what they were saying because they where speaking in a foreign language that he could not understand.

He felt something or someone grab the bag from on top of his head. Then he or she pulled the bag off and Fox saw he was in a dark room and two others staring down at him. It was hard to tell who they where because of ski masks over their head. But there was one thing Fox did know, they weren't going skiing. They were wearing brown leather jackets and blue jeans, which mad Fox a bit uneasy around them. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dark and saw that the room looked like it was made of rusty steel. It was most likely to be some sort of old jail cell. Fox felt a chill down his spine as one of the two men spoke up.

"I'll give you a chance to make things right... Where are the UAB launch codes?" He seemed as angry as hell. He had a Russian-like accent. Still unable to identify the voice, yet it sounds so familiar. He was tall and thin and so was the other man in the room.

Fox was squinting his eyes trying to gain focus of his surroundings, and said "I-I gave them... to you," Fin a horse voice. His head fell backwards hanging limply in the seat he was in.

The man asking Fox the question, slammed both of the arm rests on the chair Fox was in, and screamed, "Are you playing with me Fox?"

"I gave them to you damn it!" Fox shouted still with his head back.

The Russian slowly backed up from Fox, crossed his arms and stood up and then he took a deep breath closing his eyes to regain composure. Right away, his eyes opened back up and he spoke again to Fox, "It seems you don't want to cooperate." He pulled a knife from a sleeve in his pocket and put it to Fox's neck, "Fox, I know there are some things you don't want to waste. So I'm sure you don't want some one such as yourself be wasted with such foolish behavior. What will happen to, well... all your so-called friends? Who will protect them?" He pulled the knife away from his neck leaving a red mark across the area were it had been placed, "Please cooperate, we asked for those launch codes. You agreed that you'd get them. Then we will leave your friends alone! You'll just have to feel your body slowly deteriorate."

The man put the knife back in his pocket then he pulled out a plastic bag from his pocket. Inside was a medical needle full of some type of liquid. He slowly and carefully pulled it out of the bag, brought it up to Fox's face, and waved it back and forth in front of him. Then he began saying, "Do you know what this is McCloud?" Fox shook his head back in forth with worry in his eyes. He could not help but laugh at Fox in such a feeble position. "It's a nervous serum. It's quickly activates all nerves and pressure points in you body and numbs your all muscles in your upper and lower body except the heart. But it does numb the brain however preventing any movement or though whatsoever," He said with a devilish look in his eyes. He took Fox's hand and put a band around it. It squeezed his hand causing his veins to bulge out which were quite visible. He took the needle and put it up against one of the bulges in his arm. Fox began to become uneasy and sweat. He could not help but pant. "I'll give you one more chance to tell me where those codes are," he warned.

Fox was becoming angry that he would not believe him. He pretended to break-down and admit it, "They're here," Fox said between pants. He was under a ton of pressure not knowing what the serum feels like. He wasn't looking foreword to finding out. There was sweat dropping down from his head to his chest. He could feel the salt from his sweat in his mouth not after too long.

"Close?" the Russian asked once again hoping on a good answer.

"Close…"

"How close?"

"Very close…"

"Where?"

"…" Fox took at least four seconds to answer. He was still angry and if he said they where here then he won't believe him. From his current position, he was leaning back in his chair, got up close to the other man's head and whispered, "Up your ass."

Then, that man's eyes looked as if they had just become twisted in anger. He pushed the needle into Fox's vein and forced the serum into Fox's bloodstream. Fox flinched and felt effects from the serum almost immediately. His body began shaking and his nerves in his body activated all at once. He could not think, and his heart rate increased. He could actually feel the blood flow though his body. It was getting harder and harder to breath because the muscles near his lungs and throat where tightening up. He began to sweat even more and it soon seemed as if he had been dropped in a pool of water. As the pressure built up against his nerves and veins, his nose began to bleed. He could not even scream. He had forgotten everything for a short while. It became more and more life threatening after every passing second. It died down after about five minutes.

"That was only a small dose," his new enemy said. Fox, who was panting heavier than ever and almost turning into gaging, gave him an angry look as he raised his head up to see the person who had just poisoned him. He felt as if he could break his neck just by reaching out, but he was still tied down, "Have you made up your mind? What will it be?" he said...

Fox, trying to keep the blood from dripping out of his nose sniffed in. His head hung limply off to the side of the chair once again. Then he spoke up in a weak whisper, "I gave you the launch codes. You picked me up. I had them in my hand! Then you had to knock me out and bring me here you son of a bitch!" Fox said. He's beginning to loose his patience and beginning to unleash his temper only with his words.

The other man stalled for a second. Then he looked back at the other man in the room and spoke in his foreign language. The one other man nodded back and left the room with two additional objects. He had some type of handgun in one hand and a knife in the other. Fox looked a little confused and a bit scared at what may be happening in the other room.

As soon as he left, the Russian spoke up again, "I know your life is worth nothing to you, how about somebody else's?" he said pointing up to a screen above him. As it flickered on Fox could somebody strapped to a chair with another bag over his or her face and a blanket covering the body. "I'll help you recognize her," the man who left appeared on the screen and he pulled the mask and blanket off. To Fox's surprise it was very unexpected to see the very person he did not want to see in pain ever! It was Krystal. She didn't seem hurt or in any pain at all, at least not yet. Fox's jaw dropped slightly and he stared at the screen. He did not want to let his sights wander off her.

"Oh, so you do recognize her don't you?" Fox's captor said laughing under his breath. Fox kept staring at the screen in shock. He felt his body begin to shake again. The only movements he made were from his blinking eyes.

"Krystal," Fox whispered. His attention went off Krystal for a second to look at his captor. "What do you want with her you bastard!" he shouted.

The masked man backs up just a small amount. It seemed he was trying to avoid Fox shouting in his face again, "We want your mind, you have the knowledge of where those codes are," Fox paid attention to the man only when he spoke for his sight was fixed on the love of his life, "How about we get some volume for you?" he said as he turned the volume of the screen with a small panel on his wrist. He heard nothing but the footsteps of the other man in the room and Krystal crying with a cloth going around her head, ccovering her eyes, and one going into her mouth muffling her language. "Her life is in your hands now Fox, just like they've always been."

"She has nothing to do with this!" Fox began to loose his patience again and shout, "Just let her go!"

"You leave me no choice now Fox," He turns to a microphone and says something, again, in that same language Fox doesn't know. Once he had finished he saw that on the screen the man had put the knife to Krystal's throat. Fox could not bear to watch and shut his eyes. He did not hear a scream so he slowly opened his eyes back up to see the man still had the knife to her neck. Fox was relieved her neck wasn't bleeding like what he expected, but she was still in danger. "We will count to five until you give us the location of the launch codes… Starting now." The man in the other room puts the room to Krystal's arm. She flinched and she knew exactly what they where going to do.

Fox turned his attention away from the screen and turned his attention to the man in the room, "No!" he begged, "Please! She has nothing you want! I'm begging you! Please!" Fox's eyes began to fill with tears.

"She has one thing we want: your cooperation," the masked man replied with a stern, threatening voice, "You two are very close are you not? And, she could hear what you're saying."

"Krystal" Fox shouted into the screen. It seemed as if she got the message, "It's me Fox. Listen to me Krystal, it's going to be alright. You have nothing to do with this, it'll be alright." Krystal seemed as if she heard that message.

"One…" said the captor who was in the room with Fox. Fox looked in awe at him, knowing how merciless he was willing to be to get what he wants, in the room that Krystal was in did next. He slashed the knife by Krystal's arm making her scream and cry. Fox saw the blood drop from her arm to the floor. It shot out like a stream down her arm. When it made impact on the floor and the two men just laughed. Fox to began to cry with her.

"Please don't do this!" Fox begged again. He said with tears streaming down his face along with the sweat that still remained on his body, "You have them! I gave them to you! Please! I'm begging you!"

"Two…" he replied seemed to be ignoring Fox altogether. The man in the room with Krystal gave her another cut on her arm adding to the blood that was already falling out of her previous wound. She screamed so high it literally pulled the tears out of Fox and he felt like Krystal had no chance of getting though this.

"Three…"

"Please! Stop!" Fox shouted again.

"…"The didn't say anything until he spoke into the microphone again and said something. Just as he said his sentence the man on screen with Krystal used his handgun and fired it into Krystal's leg and she would scream louder, but the cloth going though her mouth prevented her from making the loudest of sounds. Fox could not believe his eyes. To increase risks further, the Russian in the other room put the handgun to Krystal's head. She stared in fear helplessly.

"You son of a bitch!" Fox yelled! He wanted to tear though him like bulldozer. His hate and frustration where building up so greatly that the blood vessels in his nose really burst! His blood began to gush out of his nasal passage. "You said you-!"

"You are not cooperating!" the man interrupted, "Four!" he screamed as if did not care about either of their feelings.

Fox began to calm down taking several deep breaths and talk softly to the one who decides Krystal's fate, "If you need them, I'll get them for you. Please…" a tear travels from Fox's eye and off his chin were it hit his leg afterwards, "Please…" Fox's voice trailed off and waited for a reply from the man who kept giving him such a hard time.

The man Fox spoke to paused and made no movement except a few blinks of the eye. It took a while for him to finally answer. He stared at Fox and Fox stared back they both had the same angry look except Fox had tears streaming down from his eyes. He finally answered quietly just enough for Fox and the man in the other room to hear with the microphone up to his mouth, smiled and said, "Five…" Fox closed his eyes not wanting to see what happened and he heard a gunshot and a scream come from the monitor.

Frightened, Fox wakes from his dream finding himself sitting up in his bed panting heavily unable to stop with both his arms propping him up off of his bed. He had never felt that way before. His head ached and was sweaty. He could not bear to see Krystal that way he had in his dream. He tried to forget about it but no matter how hard he tried, he could not. He always thought that his dream was telling him something, something very important. He figured that it was telling him something like _What if that is meant to happen?_ similarly to what Krystal always thought. And before it does happen, he has to tell Krystal about how he feels for her. It did not seem fair for Fox to make people his enemies and Krystal have to suffer because of it. Not at all...

Just as he began to get out of bed, he heard his door open. He turned his head to the direction of the noise and saw Krystal standing in the doorway. Fox stood up and asked her, "Yeah, Krystal?"

Krystal had on her soft, innocent smile and said,"It's almost time for breakfast, I thought you would want to go down to the kitchen to wait a while until it's ready." Her pretty smile on her face made Fox feel very good inside.

"Sure," Fox said putting a smile on his face, "I'll be there, just... let me get a shirt on."

Krystal blushed under her soft, blue fur as she had just realized that Fox wasn't wearing a shirt. Fox blushed back at her a little embarrassed. Krystal nodded as if to say, "Ok," then she stepped out of his room closing the door and continued to the kitchen.

Fox opened the small brown drawer next to his bed and pulled out a white tee shirt. His mind went from getting dressed, to Krystal's safety. The man in his dream was right. Fox was almost completely responsible for Krystal, not only her, but the entire team as well. If they get hurt or worse, killed on a mission then it's pretty much his fault for not being there for them. Their life was indeed in his hands. Yet he tried to rid his mind of that horrid dream. He slipped his shirt on and put on a pair of boots. He walked along the side of his bed to the door. The door swooshed open, which led Fox out to the hallway. Then the door closed behind him when he went beyond it. Fox then continued on to the kitchen to meet Krystal like he said he would.

(Author Note: I have to say this, reviews tell me to update faster! So, please read and review! I'll appreciate it greatly! Thanks in advance!)


	2. The Invitation to Kill

_**Chapter 2: The Invitation to Kill**_

There has been a recent invasion from a distant planet. The ships used were incredibly light and silent. They came armed with five nuclear warheads. They smuggled the warheads into Corneria and detonated two of them taking 25,000 innocent lives. The others were deactivated before they could be programmed fully. Recent intelligence tells Corneria that the name of the group that invaded them was known as the "Final Wave Militia" located in the Hoursuun Galaxy on a planet called Sauhibia in a large area named Arcobiha. Intelligence also says they have overthrown their own government leaving few allies in the enemy territory. Corneria has made another discovery saying they are already at war with their own planet. Rival clans fought each other for control of certain cities and areas. The three small villages that Final Wave control are, Mosinahu, Serol, and the capital, Hyulsan. These areas are also home to thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of civilian families. Because of constant fighting, civilian food supplies are being depleted causing more than 250,000 deaths. Many of these deaths where women and children. There where even more casualties from the constant fighting. The numbers of deaths are uncountable. Since the desert region of the planet has no fertile, ground food cannot be grown in many areas.

Soon after the attack on Corneria, Cornerian spies show images soldiers from Final Wave. They could only get the full names of two of the higher ranked individuals. Ahmed Hurei, supplies weaponry, vehicles and other equipment to Final Wave, and Hamir Kehjul, Final Wave's leader. Corneria now has two objectives. One was to capture Ahmed Hurei and Hamir Kehjul. Capturing Kehjul was out of the question at the moment. But Hurei might know where he lives. I he was captured; we could get Kehjul's location. Next was to supply food to the neighboring villages caught in the middle of the disaster. Even with the gigantic force they have established, they are still outnumbered. They need all the help they can get. The conditions are harsh in Mosinahu, and water was difficult to find. The mission previously carried out ended with an entire convoy being slaughtered. Then things got ugly when an aerial aircraft was shot down with a single shot to the engine killing eighteen out of twenty men. If this were to continue, the war would be lost quickly and thousands of Cornerian soldiers would die. If they pulled out, billions of helpless civilians would be slaughtered. The choice was difficult, but they had to stay and try to help.

Aboard the Great Fox…

Krystal sat at a little glass table alone in the kitchen patiently awaiting Fox's arrival. Her hands were made into fists and were propping her head up. She was staring out the window gazing at the many brilliantly lit stars and the majestic view of Corneria listening to nothing but the hum of the Great Fox as it slowly hovered through space near Corneria's atmosphere. The thoughts that traveled her mind where thoughts of her dream. Every time she blinked, she saw and heard that image of Fox falling into that pit. She's heard of dreams telling the future, but was it likely? She tried to keep in mind it wasn't, but she was still worried. Death is after all a very scary thing and is hard to even think of being able to bare it. If this were to be her future, Star Fox would be without a leader and without morale, a bad mixture for sure.

Just as her thoughts burrowed themselves deeper into her mind, the on board speaker system turned on saying, "Transmission: Begin…" Then she heard Fox's voice, "Krystal…" he said with a touch of self pity. "It's Fox." Krystal was able to hear every word, but her attention was on both Corneria and the speaker system. "Listen, I'm… uh… sorry… that we… didn't get to speak right now but… some things have come up… and I'd be happy to discuss them with you in the command bridge." Then the system voice came up and said, "Transmission: End…" Krystal remained in her seat. She gently bit her bottom lip and released again. She took in a deep breath then moved her head downward and made her fists loosen up and put them across her forehead. Sad, but understanding, she pushed her chair back by pushing her hands against the table in front of her, and stood up.

Fox…

In the command bridge, Fox was going through a briefing and damage report with General Pepper speaking to him over a radio transmitter. Fox sat in front of a large, flat screen in front of Fox that had audio wave lines jittering as he spoke and Pepper himself on screen. "How did this happen?" Fox asked Pepper gripping his head with his hands with three emotions taking part in his mind; anger, sadness, and anxiety.

"Rainfall 1 and Odonata 2 were hit by armor piercing missiles and the survivors were gunned down by the enemy militiamen," Pepper replied. "We would have extracted the men without endangering Rainfall 1 or Odonata 2, but the soldiers in the convoy where also killed." Rainfalls and Odonatas were code names given to a type of aerial vehicle in Sauhibia. Pepper hand just explained to Fox how the last operation went and told him the number of casualties. An entire convoy, four pilots, thirty soldiers and one hundred civilians were killed. One soldier was injured and rescued. It was evident things were out of control out there. His head was hanging down with his two arms and hands barely propping it up stretched across the top of his eyebrows. He tightened his grip on his head and spoke once more. Pepper spoke once again saying, "Fox, you do know what this means."

Fox straightened his posture again and inhaled through his mouth and exhaled through his mouth. He put his hands to his sides and went into a straight posture and stance as if ready to salute. "Yes sir, I do…" Just then, the air lock door behind Fox hissed and a group of footsteps came through getting closer, then stopped. Fox put his left leg behind his right leg and turned his torso around with his head following. The air lock door was heard closing with another semi-loud hiss. The rest of the crew, Falco, Slippy, and Krystal, stood still in front of him most likely waiting to hear the good or bad news. Krystal was still not one hundred percent aware of what was happening. She's only showing obedience to her captain, Fox. What Fox had to say must have been hard for him as well. He turned back to the monitor with Pepper saying, "We will continue this conversation some other time, sir."

Pepper's voice could be heard over the line once again, "Understood McCloud." A low-pitched beep could be faintly heard then a TTS voice said "End of message." The screen went up into the ceiling revealing a large window with a view of Corneria. Now Fox had to explain the situation. Knowing they may not like the idea, it had to be said.

He turned back to face the crew. Fox began to speak, "You're all aware of the situation Corneria is involved in currently." He paused for a brief second. "It just started to really get out of control. Before was bad, now it's just hell. Groups of soldiers have just been taken out buy enemy militiamen and several vehicles were damaged beyond repair." Now came his final statement for now, "We've been called out to fight." He knew the next question in their head was what difference could only a few more soldiers make? He started again saying, "They need a mission coordinator, a pilot, and more squad members and we fit the profiles." Then he gave a command with an effect of Falco and Slippy departing. Krystal was the only one who stood her ground. Fox turned not noticing she had not left. He began to type on the keyboard in front of him.

Fox had only a few seconds to type as he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He stopped his activity and Krystal had walked alongside him until she was in his cone of vision. He had just been slouching with his attention and his head turned to a screen in front of him but that changed as he looked up at Krystal. There was a quick and brief silence between them then Krystal broke it as she said, "Is it that bad down there?"

"Are you scared?" Fox replied, "And I'm afraid it is." Krystal had looked away to her feet in sadness and fear. "Do you not want to go?"

"No!" Krystal exclaimed snapping back to reality and looking back at Fox.

Krystal…

"Then we're all ok to go." Fox had started to type again with his full attention to the computer screen. Silence returned besides the clicking from the keyboard. Krystal was still nervous, and what she was thinking was something she was embarrassed to say. She just couldn't tell him that she was worried about him and if she did, he would ask for an explanation. She couldn't just lie, because she couldn't think of any. She took a step back still with Fox in her sight and turned her body around and walked forward toward the door from which she had entered. Her heart and mind was filled with nerve wrecking thoughts. She was fearful of what could come of this, and she felt guilty because of her own cowardice. She reached the door and it opened with a hiss as its motion sensors detected her movement. They hissed closed as she reached the other side.

Fox…

Despite the many thoughts in his mind, he had started toward the The Great Fox II's second bay. It's purpose was so other ships could dock there if needed. For Fox, going there usually meant leaving. In this case it was no different. It was as big enough to dock eight Cornerian troop carriers there which where about the size of nine Arwings and could hold 36 passengers. This is what he was waiting for. A carrier would bring him to Corneria to gear up and regroup. Falco, Slippy, and Krystal was to go straight to Sauhi tomorrow after Fox gets there to join his squad. Fox was needed for a briefing and the battle plan.

Fox could do nothing except sit and wait. He would get a call when the carrier is dispatched. The time he had to wait was put to some use. Once again, he though about the dream he had last night. Krystal was here and luckily not out in Sauhi. He just hopes it stays that way. There was no danger in the Lylat System, and Fox was going to fight to keep it that way. All he had to do was win. The only problem was it was nowhere as easy as it sounded. This was war… War is hell… Hell has no mercy… Something like this is something you can't sit down and watch. You'll pick up a gun and fight alongside those brave men and women who go through a tough training program with the risk of dieing the next day. This was not a character trait you would find in most, but it was evidently in those in Mosinahu.

(AUTHOR NOTE: Yes this chapter was short. I was expecting it to be. I went through five variations to write this here chapter, so that's what took me so damn long. The next chapter will be longer.)


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